Elizabeth Reaser and Walton Goggins play a married Hollywood couple whose garden party goes awry with the arrival of a stranger.
Walton Goggins and Pedro Pascal, who are currently in the cultural zeitgeist thanks to The White Lotus and The Last of Us, have teamed up with Elizabeth Reaser for the new drama The Uninvited.
The film, written and directed by Goggins’s wife Nadia Conners in her feature directorial debut, tells the story of Rose (Twilight’s Reaser), an actress whose opportunities have dried up so she’s become a reluctant stay-at-home mum.
Rose and her husband Sammy (Goggins), an agent, throw a garden party in their Los Angeles home and it goes off the rails when Rose’s movie star ex-boyfriend Lucien (Pascal) and an elderly woman named Helen (Lois Smith) show up.
The Uninvited has been promoted as a comedy of errors but it only feels like that with the initial set-up, when Helen arrives at the same time as their A-list guests and insists they’re living in her house.
But once the story moves on and finds its groove, it is primarily a drama with a handful of darkly comedic moments.
Helen’s unexpected arrival is the hook of the film but it actually turns out to be the least interesting. It’s quite repetitive, it doesn’t have a satisfying pay-off and isn’t written as well as other storylines.
But there’s plenty of compelling character arcs elsewhere in the party. Rose’s rich and complicated history with Lucien is riveting, as is Sammy figuring out his next moves as agent and how Rose deals with the hot new ingénue, Delia (Eva De Dominici), being in demand when she’s not anymore.
These storylines are well written by Conners and superbly acted by the entire ensemble.
In particular, Reaser gets to showcase her talents in a rare leading role and has a palpable chemistry and sense of deep history with Pascal.
This film presents an honest look at being an ageing woman in Hollywood and the struggles of motherhood.
What a shame it focuses on the least satisfying storyline and lets it take up so much space.
In cinemas from Friday 9th May.
By Hannah Wales.
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